Feeling the blues

It’s been exactly a year since India won that unforgettable World Cup. The proceedings since then have been completely forgettable

If the Indian cricket team was a scrip listed on the bourses, its price would be at a one-year low. And this, stock market experts would advise, is the right time to buy. But unlike a stock, millions of fans still want to ‘sell’ their cricket team and cut their losses.

Three hundred and sixty five days after that memorable World Cup win at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, the Indian team looks uneasy, even clumsy, holding the ‘world champions’ tag. Even the No. 1 ranking in Test cricket has been snatched – or shall we say squandered away? The team has been in a free fall – and much like the Kingfisher Airlines stock at the Bombay Stock Exchange these days, there’s little reason to be hopeful.

So, where did things go wrong? Why were our celebrations so short-lived? Maybe it has to do with the fact that the team has been way too busy to let its hair down. Too busy to even pause and reflect, and too busy to worry about the results – good or bad.

The BCCI is something like a large American corporation that has turned the Indian team into a sweat shop. Less than a week after the World Cup final, MS Dhoni and his band parted ways to traverse the length and breadth of the country for that two-month annual circus called the IPL. Soon after, they were packed off to the West Indies for a series nobody cared for, and then shipped to England for an agonisingly long and painful tour and arrived back home for the Champions League T20. Days later, India was hosting England in the most inconsequential ODI tour. This was followed by a home series against West Indies, then the Australia tour (that seemed to last forever) before the Asia Cup in Bangladesh last month. India also hosted the Champions League T20, but we’ll let that pass for now.

And before they get set for IPL Season 5 which starts later this week, they were also forced to play a one-off T20I against South Africa in Johannesburg. Even the hosts didn’t bother fielding a full-strength squad.

Amidst this gloom, there’s one piece of good news; it can’t get any worse. Like investment experts would say, we’ve reached the market bottom.